HSBC reported a 10 percent rise in third quarter profits on Monday to $5.1bn, benefitting from a sharp unpturn in the Hopelessness Index, as a consequence of which Colombian drug sales grew by 18%. The bank confirmed it was being investigated as part of a global probe into currency market trading manipulation.Continue reading →

(Reuters) The European Central Bank is expected to leave interest rates on hold today, waiting instead to show its mettle with a new bond-purchase programme that is ready for use as soon as Spain asks for help.

The bank said last month it was ready to buy bonds of debt-strained governments such as Spain and Italy once they had signed up to a European bailout programme. Continue reading →

Comments Off on Irish Times – ECB To Hold Interest Rates Steady – 8 November 2012

Officially, the ESM permanent euro-zone bailout fund is worth 500 billion euros. That, though, might not be enough, which is why euro-zone governments are now planning to introduce levers that could mobilize up to 2trillion euros, SPIEGEL has learned. Finland, though, is skeptical of the idea.

With the launch of the permanent common-currency bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), just around the corner, euro-zone member states are looking into ways to leverage the €500 billion ($647 billion) available to the fund, SPIEGEL has learned. But with Finland still concerned about the leveraging plans, it is unlikely that they will be initially included when the ESM is launched on Oct. 8. Continue reading →

Comments Off on Der Spiegel – Up To Two Trillion Europe Plans To Leverage Euro-Zone Bailout Fund – 24 September 2012

See Mervyn stare at glass globe. Hear Mervyn say things are recovering. And adding “albeit very slowly”. See Mervyn use the eurozone as a caveat. He should wear a tie like normal people. See a black cloud hanging over Merv’s parade. Continue reading →

Comments Off on John Ward – UK Recession : Gipsy Merv Foresees A Recovery…. But Next Week Sees The Spanish Bailout – 21 September 2012

Posted onSeptember 16, 2012bylucas2012infos|Comments Off on John Ward – E-Zone Civil War : How The Eunatics Are Creating A Divisive Financial Control System – 16 September 2012

Banking control in one camp, fiscal control in the other. “Sorted,” say the neocons

German finance minister Schäuble sits in his little Wolfschanze this morning, a less than happy wolf-cub. Earlier this year, his boss Angela Merkel did the Grand Tour of European capitals and delivered what they both thought was a done deal: for Herr Schäuble to be the Obersturmbannführer of all things money in the new Fiskalunion being created by Berlin-am-Brussels. Continue reading →

Comments Off on John Ward – E-Zone Civil War : How The Eunatics Are Creating A Divisive Financial Control System – 16 September 2012

Posted onSeptember 14, 2012bylucas2012infos|Comments Off on John Ward – Eclusive : ‘Bankfurt And The Us Out To Stop Draghi’ – German Bankers, IMF ‘Blocking ECB Plans For Bank Union And Greek Rescue’ – 14 September 2012

I’ve been saying for months now that Greece ‘will not be allowed’ to leave the single currency, because Merkel and Draghi accept that the chaos would be fatal for the eurozone. I also recently noted that the ‘done-deal after a suitable period of fisticuffs’ I’d predicted was surfacing. It still is: reduced interest rates on extended periods of Greek debt repayment (plus both ECB and sovereign EU member haircuts) are now being openly discussed by officials in Berlin, Brussels, and Paris. Continue reading →

Comments Off on John Ward – Eclusive : ‘Bankfurt And The Us Out To Stop Draghi’ – German Bankers, IMF ‘Blocking ECB Plans For Bank Union And Greek Rescue’ – 14 September 2012